I read a lot of books for my column about teenagers finding their way in the world - working out what is right and wrong and deciding who it is that they want to be. It's rare though that I read a book in which a teen, especially a boy, is able to study a group of men and learn from them about how to become a good man. In the case of Joe Cottonwood's new book Clear Heart, the boy is Abe, recently graduated from high school and accepted to Princeton but having some problems getting himself together. Here's a bit from a conversation between his mother and the book's protagonist, contractor Wally:

"So Abe's a good kid?"

"Oh yes. Except when he gets in a mood. Then he goes out and sits on the roof. In the rain, even. For hours."

"How often does that happen?"

"About twice a day." She laughed. "He's got some things to sort out. It's hard. He never had a father figure. Actually, he had a couple of anti-father figures. My fault of course. So out of guilt I've probably been too soft on him. I don't want to make him sound like a spoiled brat because he's not but he needs a little focus."

Wally, who meets Opal as the book opens, hires Abe and from there the book becomes a cascade of story lines all centering around building houses, staying true to your promises and building relationships, both love and otherwise. Wally is good at his job. He runs a tight crew, he's honest and he works hard. He loved his wife until she died and he loves his adult children. He is a good man.

The crew has a great job building a crazy mansion for one of the "new rich" when it all falls to pieces, the owner goes bust and checks end up bouncing. Wally tries to hold his crew together through maxed out credit cards and every thing else he can manage when the chance to finish the house for a new buyer and recoup their losses is dangled before their heads. To get the money owed them, and just as importantly, to finish the job, they all agree to an insane schedule to get it done. That's when Abe truly learns what it means to be a man of your word and when Opal and Wally decide that love matters enough to work through all the crap that comes from loving someone and when everyone else in this chorus of a book make their choices, find their voices and brings themselves together in a fabulous fashion. It's people working hard and doing what they say they are going to do but in reading Clear Heart, and the more I read the more compelling the story became, I kept thinking how no one seems to recognize the people who live their lives this way anymore. I'm not celebrating people who work with their hands merely to celebrate them - the whole "real America vs fake America" crap but people who work at any profession and do what they say they will do. On any level, in any job, we forget the value of that promise - this is what I was hired to do and I will do it. It's the most basic exchange between people but we forget it and in the case of Abe, it's something he's never spent five minutes thinking about before he goes to work for Wally.

Clear Heart was written for adults - there is some sex and some cussing (it's mostly of the Battlestar Galactica variety; we all know what the word means but it's not "the" word). But the more I read the book the more I thought it was just as much about Abe and what he sees around him as he works the job everyday as it is about Wally holding his life together under tremendous stress. (And I loved Wally - he's a great character.) The more Abe realizes that there is a whole world out there that has escaped him though and makes him rethink who he wants to be, the more he moves to the forefront. It's Abe's coming-of-age story, (which does not end up the obvious way at all), and it is also the story of a teenager named Miranda who has her own personal crisis to deal with and, in the end, another teenager who makes a bad choice and finds help from Wally and his crew as well. There's also a very significant road trip that Abe and Miranda embark on for the good of the crew that does not go well on many levels but in the end is a triumph, again, of getting the job done. By the time I closed the final page I thought wow - this is the book every 17 year old boy needs to read. It's about men and women (and how to treat each other); it's about choosing your friends wisely, and it's about work which is something we are all supposed to plan to do but no one ever seems to teach us how to do it well. I simply thought it was wonderful and, along with a "rated R" caution it will be in my August road tripping column. I can't believe this is the second self-published book I've read and another great read. It's way way WAY better than the last adult novel I plowed through (still suffering flashbacks from that one). Highly recommended for discerning teens and anyone interested in a good read about some good people.